Cyngor Bwdaidd Cymru — Buddhist Council of Wales

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Welcome

Welcome to the Buddhist Council of Wales site. Here you will find details of events, information and news relating to the organisations which are members of the Council and also to other Buddhist organisations – a resource for all Buddhists in Wales.

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

Race
Council Cymru - the official organisers of the Black History Month
Wales programme have announced the Black History Month Wales 2017
-
10th Anniversary.

Theme:OUR STARS. OUR FUTURE. OUR HISTORY.

They are also organising the 2nd Youth Awards which were launched in 2016 and seek nominations for any BAME young person aged 13
to 30 who organisations/ providers/employers feel deserves wider recognition for their achievements.

Information
on the BHM Wales Youth Awards and sponsorship opportunities are
attached for your information including the links to nomination
forms.

There will be events taking place all over Wales and the
Black History Wales Youth Awards will take place on

Friday 29th September 2017 at 12pm at Pierhead Building Cardiff Bay.
The closing date for nominations is Thursday 31st August 2017

The categories this year include
Visual Art, Outstanding Academic Achievement, Music /Performing Art,
Good Citizens, Entrepreneur, Young Leader, Science and Innovation, Young
Volunteer, Young Carer and Sport.

Official BHM Wales launches will take place on:

Saturday 30th September 2017 at 12pm - 5.30pm at National Museum of Wales, Cathay's Park, Cardiff

The Valleys Taskforce wants to hear the views of people who work
and live in the south Wales valleys to help shape the valleys
communities for the future.

It would be great if you can engage with the talk valleys programme
and help spread the word by sharing the different ways people can get
involved to your family, friends, colleagues and relevant stakeholders.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

The Buddhist Council of Wales has received an enquiry from Lowri Williams of the BBC, appealing for Welsh language speaking Buddhists to help with the production of bilingual resources for GCSE Religious Studies revision. Can you help?

“I'm a producer for BBC Bitesize, an online revision
resource for GCSE students. I'm currently in the early production stage
of a brand new bilingual resource for Religious Studies (Wales only).
The resource will be based on the WJEC's new
specification to be taught from September 2017.

The WJEC’s new specification mentions the
importance of including a Welsh perspective, and as it will be a
bilingual English/Welsh resource, would you be able to recommend any
Welsh-speaking Buddhists or centres where there are Welsh speakers
please?”

Friday, 19 May 2017

Invitation to the Sanghapadipa Temple in Tredegar

9th September

Within South Wales there exists a Buddhist Community that has a long and entwined relationship with the Monastic Sangha of the current Theravada Elders. This community has children, parents and grandparents that practice the Buddhist doctrine of harmonious living in a way that is inter-generational and in line with the doctrine. At the present time many people convene at the Sanghapadipa Temple, Rhymney, Gwent Valleys. Such support for the mind and heart is easily observed, when immersed in this way.

Within the yearly structure of the temple, a plethora of courses, teaching, mindfulness days are not offered. Yes that's correct, not offered. There is very little focus on Doctrine and Discipline as an educational attainment and nobody is regarded as beginner or intermediate meditator. There are no labels, just an opportunity to slip into the flow of the monastic communities contemplative living, the giving of food, private or led meditation, chanting the Pali suttas or just relaxing in the landscape of our Welsh countryside. The atmosphere is friendly and one of cordiality.

The community is peer led, those people interested in aspects of the Dhamma, make their own effort to travel, learn and explore. Various people within the community organise day visits to Cittaveka, Amaravatti or Buddhapadipa Temple. These days are communal gatherings and formality is dropped.

Ajahn Sawat and the monks are originally from Thailand, and the Thais have Buddhism embedded in their culture, religious heritage and psyche of the land of 'friendly smiles'. There is a unique opportunity to experience the Buddha's way from a culture that is embedded within his formidable teaching.

We are organising a meeting day on Saturday September 9th for people who would like to visit the temple and for people in the Bridgend area, who would like to support their own practice. If this resonates with what you are looking for, please do get in touch. As with all of our activities, everything we do is freely given.

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

The following events were attended by a Buddhist Council of Wales representative:8th March – ‘Inspirational Women’ an interfaith event for International Women’s Day, organised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nor’dzin Pamo (BCW Chair) was one of the speakers.15th March– Interfaith Council for Wales event at the Cardiff Reform Synagogue16th March–Interfaith Council for Wales meeting. Lin Ashby spoke about the Charities Commission (see below for more details of this meeting).28th March– ‘Has Wales Become a Godless Society?’ – Gorwel Debate (please see Nor’dzin’s personal blog for more details of this event) 30th March– BCW bi-annual meeting (see separate post for details) 3rd April– Faith Communities Forum meeting, with the First Minister and other AMs (see below for more details of this meeting).Events to which a representative of the Buddhist Council of Wales were invited, but no representative was available to attend:7th March–The Muslim Council of Wales conference with partners in Wales exploring a community
based response to violent extremism.Race Equality First– Youth Against Violent Extremism Project – 4 visits to churches and mosques Forthcoming events for which the Buddhist Council of Wales does not have an available representative:July 20th 2017–Peace Mala Inter-faith Liturgy for World Peace at Llandaf Cathedral, Cardiff.
July 31st 2017–The Welsh
National Service of Remembrance to mark the Centenary of the Third
Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in Langemark, Belgium at 16:00 (local
time) Could someone from one of our Member Organisations attend this? Please
contact the Buddhist Council of Wales at
buddhistcouncilwales(at)gmail.com if you can help.

Interfaith Council for Wales meeting 16th MarchLin Ashby is the lead on faith-based charities for the Charities Commission. Many of Lin Ashby’s comments may be relevant to Buddhist groups and organisations:

if you have a constitution you are probably acting like a charity

even if you are not a charity, but work in that way, you need to observe the principles laid down by the Charities Commission

Trustees should reflect the organisation’s remit and be diverse (gender, age, able/disabled, etcetera)

buck stops with the Trustees – they are in charge

the Governing Document of an organisation should include how to deal with a conflict of interest, and with disagreement, and include length of time in post for officers

a Code of Conduct is good to have

She will be offering free workshops for organisations. The BCW will let you know when these are arranged.The TSPC (Third Sector Partnership Council) has proved its value and been successful in a couple of its faith-based campaigns:

Local Government wished to end Communities First. The TSPC succeeded in convincing government of the importance of Communities First and the problems that would arise if it was ceased to exist for those benefiting from its work. The government has changed its policy with regard to Communities First.

Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim communities have religious requirements with regard to burial arrangements. Health and Social Care are now addressing these issues.